Snipfact:

  The warhorse is one of the most familiar of all military animals, but elephants have also been successfully used in battles. Many military organizations use dogs, goats and other animals as regimental mascots. Message-carrying dogs and carrier pigeons have been used by armies. During the Iraq war in 2004, dolphins were trained to find mines.

  Sheepdogs, hunting hounds, retrievers and guide dogs for the blind are among the best known, but other animals, such as monkeys, can be trained to aid the disabled. Search and rescue dogs help to find missing people, lost walkers and climbers, and earthquake victims. Less well-known human helpers include pigs used to find truffles (edible fungi) and cats kept by the British Post Office to prevent mice from eating the mail! Animals kept as pets also provide millions of people with championship.

  Strong animals such as horses, donkeys, camels, reindeer and buffalo are used to pull agricultural equipment and carts, and to carry people. Elephants drag heavy logs, pit ponies once drew trucks in coal mines, and dogs – usually huskies – pull sledges

  Silk comes from the silkworm, the caterpillar of the silkmoth, Silkworms eat a ton of mulberry leaves to make 5 kg (11 lb) of silk

  Wool is shorn from live sheep, which then regrow their costs. The fur and leather of many other animals can be taken only after the animal has been killed. Cattle, goats, rabbits, mink, seals, wolves, foxes, kangaroos, big cats such as leopards, and alligators and snakes are among the many animals that have been used in this way. There are some very special uses for animal skin: for example, medieval manuscripts were written on vellum, made from calfskin.

  Humans have always hunted and eaten wild animals. Milk from such animals as cows, goat, sheep, camels, buffalo, reindeer, Ilamas, and yaks in drunk, used in cooking and made into butter and cheese. The eggs from birds such as hens, ducks, geese and quail are another important food. Honey has long been taken from the hives of wild bees, and now from domesticated bees kept in articial hives.

  A tigress known as the Champwat maneater, after the part of India in which she lived, killed a record of 436 people over five years. She was shot in 1907 by British big-game hunter Colonel Jim Corbett (1875-1955)